


Manifestation of Gain

by goldarrow



Series: Silent!Stephen [2]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 20:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5884141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldarrow/pseuds/goldarrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cutter makes a mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Manifestation of Gain

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures, not me. Unfortunately. Sigh. I mean no harm, I make no profit except satisfaction.
> 
> Thanks to the inestimable fredbassett for the beta.
> 
> It would be a good idea to read Reflection of Loss first, but it's not absolutely necessary. Suffice to say that this Stephen Hart was cloned by Helen Cutter. He has all the memories of the original, but he is unable to speak, having been created without vocal cords. He and Ryan are lovers.  
> \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Sometimes Captain Tom Ryan wasn’t sure whether to be proud of his lover for his courage or to thump him for his tendency toward self-sacrifice. The team had arrived at the coordinates of the latest anomaly fairly quickly, only to find an entire herd of Brachyceratops wandering around the Welsh countryside.

Stephen’s piercing whistle had made every head in the area turn toward him. A single note was the signal that he had something to say; a double meant hit the dirt, and a triple meant he was in dire trouble. So far, only the single and double had ever been used.

Ryan was vaguely pleased about that as he turned to look, but his pleasure morphed into anger and fear at the scene playing out in the grassy bowl of the valley.

Stephen was staring toward Nick Cutter. The professor was so engrossed in watching the four family groups of Brachyceratops in front of him as they grazed on the long summer grasses that he was missing the Alectrosaurus coming up at an angle behind him. So far, the two metre tall tyrannosaurid hadn’t noticed Cutter as he squatted in the shade of a rather large specimen of ancient avalanche leavings, but it wouldn’t be long before it came far enough around the boulder to see him if he moved.

The biggest of the Brachyceratops looked up and around at the shrill sound, trying to track it down, and caught sight of the Alectrosaurus. In spite of its barely waist-high stature, the herbivore managed to emit a bellow that would make any of the local bulls hang their horns in shame. The entire herd of Brachyceratops swung around and headed for the horizon at their best possible speed, with the juveniles and youngsters safely in the centre.

Cutter also looked around, but knowing where the sound came from, he stared straight at Stephen, who was signing quickly, desperately and repetitively at Cutter for him to _Stay down. Stay still. Be quiet._ If the professor remained where he was, the Alectrosaurus would pass by him on the off side, and barring errant gusts, the wind would stay just clear of giving him away.

Cutter, of course, did just the opposite. “Bloody hell, Stephen,” he yelled. “Slow down. I can’t work out what you’re saying!”

The Alectrosaurus stopped, its head swinging to the side as if on a string to home in on the sound of Cutter’s voice. Ryan watched in horror as the creature turned and headed straight toward Cutter’s hiding place. Stephen looked at Ryan, signed _I’m sorry_ , and with a triple whistle, ran right out across the field in front of the tyrannosaurid. The creature stopped, looking as confused as a dinosaur could when trying to work out whether the better prey was the easy meal it could smell on the ground, or the noisy meal running directly in front of it. The hesitation gave Ryan’s men just enough time. . .

Ryan yelled one word. “Down!”

Stephen dived forward, out of the line of fire, and Cutter immediately dropped to the ground and rolled behind the boulder again as the Special Forces soldiers opened fire on the Alectrosaurus. Not one of the men was willing to take a chance on either Stephen’s or Cutter’s life. If the tyrannosaurid had kept on after the Brachyceratops, they would have left it for the tranqs. Now they had no time.

Even though the creature was nowhere near the size of its royal cousin, it still required multiple clips of ammunition to take it down. Ryan slammed his second clip in and gave it another burst through the head as it collapsed, less than eight metres from where Stephen was lying pressed as flat as he could get to the ground.

The captain grinned a little through his tangled emotions. Seeing both Cutter and Stephen on the ground in almost identical positions was amusing, but realising that again he’d come within a couple of seconds of losing his lover to a creature made him want to shake Stephen until he rattled loose a little bit of common sense. If Cutter hadn’t bothered to study the signing lessons they were all taking, then it should be on his own head if he turned himself into lunch.

Stephen obviously disagreed with that feeling, because he was now stalking up to Cutter with an extremely irate look on his face. Ryan waved Ditzy and Lyle back to give the men some time alone.

Sending Fiver and Finn back along the fairly obvious track of the Alectrosaurus to make sure it was alone, Ryan yelled to Stephen that he and the others were heading after the Brachyceratops herd. The silent man nodded without breaking stride in his trek towards the rather downcast looking professor.

Ryan was still grinning as he and the men jogged along the trail left by the herd. Abby and Connor, with Blade as their backup on this mission, had already followed on after the surprisingly nippy herbivores in an attempt to make sure there were no stragglers spreading out into the hills.

xXx

Stephen Hart had frequently wished he could speak since he’d been created by Helen Cutter in her future-lab, but this was the first time he wished with every fibre of his being that he could actually yell.

When the language specialists had set up the daily signing lessons (with Lester’s firm instructions that everyone was indeed required to attend at some point each day), they’d deliberately kept them simple. Two new signs per day were demonstrated, with instructions that they were to be practiced as much as possible that day. Every day, the prior day’s signs were checked, with a random sign from an earlier day also tested to make sure people weren’t losing them. It had been the most effective way they could come up with that would allow for communication to develop rapidly but not prove too much of a burden on busy people. Each lesson took no more than fifteen minutes, with the lessons available three times each day: in the morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon or early evening, depending on the schedules and/or the occurrence of anomaly alarms.

Unfortunately, there were a few people at the ARC who seemed to either be too busy to practice or too sure of themselves to bother. Based on his performance today, Nick Cutter might be one of them.

_Stay down, stay still, be quiet,_ and _follow_ _me_ had been the first signs chosen because of their usefulness in the field. They were the most basic; they were the ones that had been repeated most often in the practice sessions; and they were the ones that everyone was expected to know as well as they knew how to wave hello or goodbye.

Stephen marched straight up to Cutter and stared him in the eyes. The tracker couldn’t speak, but he’d discovered that once he stopped blanking his face to hide his thoughts he was very skilful at getting across what he wanted with nothing but his expression. Right now, he wanted that expression to convey anger, fear, and a little bit of disgust. By the look on Cutter’s face he was succeeding.

The professor was still shaking slightly from the narrow escape. He ran his hand through his hair, making the unruly blond spikes stand straight up.

Stephen stood in front of him, trembling slightly himself, his arms folded in a signal that he was too furious to even try to talk.

Cutter’s shoulders slumped and he sighed, barely able to meet Stephen’s angry gaze. “Yeah, okay,” he said softly. “I fucked up.” He stared at the dead Alectrosaurus. “Stephen, I’m sorry. I thought I knew the signs. Bloody hell, they’re so simple. But when push came to shove, and I got excited and scared, they just went right out of my head.” He looked back at Stephen and reached out to touch his friend’s stiff shoulder. “I’ll do better. I promise.”

Stephen wanted, very badly, to believe him, but he just couldn’t be sure. He shrugged Cutter’s hand off, making the older man’s breath hitch. Then he grasped Cutter’s hand, led him over to the dead dinosaur, and pointed a stiff finger at the multiple bullet holes in the carcass.

Cutter followed the gesture and sighed as he squatted down to touch the cooling flesh.

“Yes, this magnificent creature is dead because I didn’t understand you.” He looked back up at Stephen, expression truly contrite as the full consequences of his inaction finally seemed to hit him.

Stephen took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment as he realised that Cutter actually meant it. Opening his eyes on a nod, he smiled slightly and signed very slowly, _Do better next time_.

Cutter laughed and said, “That I will. I promise.” He looked around. “So, should we follow the herd or the hunters?”

Grinning, Stephen pointed in the direction that Fiver and Finn had taken.

Cutter sighed. “The hunters. Of course. Why ever did I think we’d go the easy route?”

Stephen started walking, keeping his signs slow. _Smaller trackway, harder to follow._

“Eh, that’s true,” Cutter responded after a pause for mental translation. “They might need you more. Lead on.”

Stephen moved off at a slow trot, following the signs left by the Alectrosaurus and the two soldiers tracking it back. He kept an eye on Cutter to make sure the older man was keeping up easily enough.

Luckily, a couple of years of dinosaur-wrangling had made Cutter much more aware of the need for physical conditioning, and although he was still resisting strength training, he had reluctantly taken up a little running. As he’d mentioned at the time, running away seemed the most appropriate response to most of the creatures they met. And although he’d always been pretty nippy on his feet, his stamina had never been of the greatest.

Stephen was pleased to see that the daily runs were starting to have an effect. Cutter was keeping up without a problem, and was even proud enough to send him a rather cheeky grin as Stephen upped the pace a little, forcing the professor to lengthen his stride to keep up. He didn’t seem to have enough extra breath to comment, though, so Stephen kept the pace at that level, after a questioning look and a thumbs up elicited a solid nod from the older man.

It took less than five minutes for them to track down the soldiers, who had stopped at the north end of the valley where the scattered splinters of time revolved in their pallid sharp-edged dance. The anomaly was nestled up against the rocks where the valley had been formed from a riven mountain millennia ago.

“Damn,” Cutter muttered after pulling out his portable anomaly detector to check the readings. “It’s already fairly weak. We have to get the Brachyceratops back here as soon as possible.”

Stephen nodded at Finn, who immediately contacted Ryan to pass on the information. He then tapped Cutter on the shoulder with a questioning expression.

“I don’t know how long,” Cutter responded. “It takes a few readings to see how fast it’s fading. If you want, leave me here with Finn to guard me in case anything else comes through and take Fiver with you to help chivvy the Brachyceratops herd back.”

Stephen pondered for a moment, then nodded at Fiver. The soldier notified Ryan of the change in plans and got the okay. Leaving Cutter to watch his readings, Stephen clapped him on the shoulder and took off with Fiver matching his speed. They probably didn’t have too far to go, but Stephen wanted to be fairly fresh when they arrived. The Brachyceratops weren’t large, but they were quick and aggressive when protecting their offspring.

Any herding would have to be subtle; and if the herd saw them coming at a run, they just might stampede again. Slowing for a moment, Stephen signed to Fiver _Tell Ryan to tell us when he sees us_. It took a few tries, since some of the signs hadn’t been demonstrated in the classes yet, but Fiver worked out the message after an amusing stumble or two. Grinning, the soldier passed the message on to the captain.

Stephen heard the affirmative response in his own headset. He wore one even though he couldn’t speak. He could hear, and they wanted to be able to catch his emergency whistle if he was out of earshot. Not that the latter situation was very likely. Stephen had learned to keep his headset mic muted most of the time after his first attention-whistle had half deafened most of the men. He’d never realised before then how stridently powerful it was.

Fifteen minutes of a medium speed lope brought them close to the other end of the valley. The men slowed when they heard Ditzy’s voice.

“You’re in visual range.”

Stephen and Fiver dropped to a walk as they finished topping out on the slight rise. They’d passed a few trails leading up the hills, and since the valley didn’t form a complete bowl Stephen had worried that the Brachyceratops might actually spread out into the local countryside. But they’d got lucky. The team had managed to head the herd away from the lower opening and back into a more hilly area. But there they had stalled.

The herd was happily grazing again, and they didn’t seem to be ready to move at all. The grass was green, the day was sunny, and there were no scents of predators anywhere on the cool breezes. What more could any dinosaur want?

xXx

Ryan looked up as his lover walked slowly towards him, staring at the creatures grazing calmly in the valley. Stephen had a quietly joyful smile on his face, eyes shining with happiness at the sight of an entire herd of prehistoric herbivores making themselves perfectly at home in this modern era.

The soldier shook his head indulgently. His own priority was in getting the bloody things back home before the anomaly closed on them. They had about three kilometres to move the herd. At the speed they could expect to move the creatures without spooking them, they were looking at a minimum of 25, even 35 to 40 minutes to get them back to the other end of the valley. Damn.

Ryan called Abby, Connor and Stephen in for a conference. Laying out their need for as much speed as possible without totally panicking the herd, he asked for suggestions. The three looked at each other, then back at him.

Connor shrugged. “Based on their profiles, they’re pretty calm animals. Not very easy to scare.”

Abby thought for a moment, correlating behaviour patterns, then suggested that maybe just moving in on them might do it. The shepherds would have to remain far enough apart to keep the creatures on the correct course, but close enough together that they couldn’t break through the line.

Ryan sighed. They had himself, Stephen, Connor, Abby, Ditzy, Lyle, Blade, and Finn. Eight people. That wasn’t a whole lot to be able to funnel about 18 creatures.

Stephen snapped his fingers for attention, pointed out seven weak points to guard on the map, and mimed giving a whistle from an eighth point. Ryan analysed the plan, with Abby muttering thoughtfully as she worked through the positions and the possible breakout points for nervous beasts.

“I think that will work,” she said. “Maybe putting number six a little farther south?”

Ryan checked the positioning and nodded, catching Stephen’s agreement out of the corner of his eye.

“We should be able to move them quicker once we get them into the narrow point. All we should have to do from there is keep the sides far enough away to avoid making them nervous,” Ryan said. “Hopefully, they’ll associate your whistle with the predators that showed up last time.”

“If we’re lucky, and if they’re really smart,” Abby added with a grin.

Ryan chuckled, and quickly handed out positions, with him at the end next to where Stephen was hopefully going to set the creatures on the move. The only thing they weren’t absolutely sure about was whether the Brachyceratops would run from the origin of the whistle or attack instead. The captain hoped deeply that the creatures would consider the greater part of valour and leg it.

Once they were all in position, Ryan whispered, “Now.”

Stephen’s piercing whistle broke the silence and brought the lead Brachyceratops’ head up with a jerk. The tracker moved in slowly, whistling again as loudly as he could. The herbivore’s head shook and it took a step away. Stephen kept walking, the screeching sound continuing to emanate from him with every step. As he came closer, the entire herd started moving restlessly, looking back and forth from Stephen to their leader.

Finally, at a particularly shrill shriek, one of the females turned and started to walk quickly down the valley, nudging her youngster in front of her. At that, the largest creature bellowed and started off also. Once he moved, the entire herd headed out at a good clip.

Ryan spoke into his headset, “Keep them going at about that speed, Stephen; it’s working nicely. They’re moving fast, but not fast enough to panic.” Glancing over at his lover, who was now timing whistles with paces, he grinned a little. “Don’t run yourself out of breath. Try a little break between whistles. We don’t want them to get too used to the sound.”

Abby agreed, her voice clear over the headsets. “If they realise that it’s just noise, they’ll slow down. Maybe try quiet for a few seconds, then really loud, then lower; you know, ring the changes on them.”

Stephen’s rather rude gesture in return said without words that he wasn’t a bloody symphony orchestra. Ryan figured the second gesture meant he wasn’t a carillon either, but the soldier wasn’t quite sure about that one and he wasn’t about to ask right now.

As they finally neared the last curve before the anomaly, Ryan notified Finn and Cutter that it was time to hide.

They managed to keep the herd moving until the creatures saw the anomaly. At that point, the lead Brachyceratops stuck his toes in and refused to go any closer. Ryan lost patience. Even without Cutter’s voice in his ear telling him, he could see that the anomaly was on its last shards. He shrugged his weapon from his shoulder and sent a short burst into the ground behind the trailing herbivore. The creature squalled and started to trot away from the noise and exploding clods of earth that were slapping its rump. That infected the rest of the herd, including the leader. With a bellowed curse that didn’t need any translation into English, the largest Brachyceratops headed through the anomaly, his entire herd trailing him one by one until the last one passed through, still yelling.

The final tail had barely disappeared before the anomaly shimmered, blinked, sucked itself inside out and disappeared.

Cutter and Abby met behind Connor as the young man started typing as quickly as he could into his laptop, striving to get all the information they could all recall into his creature database before anyone forgot the slightest detail.

The SF team relaxed after Ryan set Blade and Fiver to guard each end of the valley until the scientists got themselves organised.

Stephen walked straight over to Ditzy’s pack and snagged two bottles of water. He downed one without stopping to even swallow, prompting Finn to suggest he take part in their next beer drinking contest, and grinned before starting to sip the next.

“You okay?” Ryan moved up beside Stephen and gave him a quick hug. “That was a marathon session.”

Stephen shrugged. _I’m okay_ , he signed, then grinned and added, _xxx tired_.

Ryan thought about  it, working out various translations of what that last sign might mean. Then he laughed and took a guess. “Whistler tired?”

Stephen nodded and ghosted a silent laugh. _Good job_. _Not sure you’d work it out_.

“Not a problem for me,” Ryan replied. “I have a pretty good handle on your sign language.” He gave an evil grin. “And right now, there’s something signing to me pretty ‘hard’.”

Stephen blushed and glanced around quickly. _Adrenaline_. _That gunfire._

Ryan wasn’t buying it. “Uh-uh. You didn’t have it until I hugged you.” He grinned, wondering if his blue-eyed lover’s continued shyness about public displays of affection would make him try to stop the teasing in its tracks. The soldier believed it was about damn time Stephen stopped hiding.

So did someone else. Ryan almost blushed himself when Lyle’s voice echoed down the valley. “For fuck’s sake, Hart, just kiss the bastard, already!”

Stephen’s blush intensified to a level that Ryan swore would be capable of burning out an infrared lens. He hid his face in Ryan’s neck for a moment before he took a deep breath, stared the captain straight in the eye and gave him a kiss that weakened the soldier’s knees.

When Ryan managed to open his eyes again, everyone was staring at him with various levels of amusement. Abby was actually giggling, Connor was blushing through his smile, and Cutter almost gained Ryan’s eternal enmity by starting a round of applause that was taken up by the entire team, SF and civilian. Ryan changed his mind about that when Stephen’s forehead touched his own, and his lover stared straight into his eyes and actually mouthed ‘I love you’.

Ryan’s eyes widened and he pulled back to stare in shock. He looked wildly around to see the same gob-smacked look on everyone else’s face.

“How? You couldn’t . . .” Ryan was feeling rather speechless himself right now. Stephen had shown many times that even the concept of speech was completely foreign to him. Any attempt to have him try to talk had been greeted with confusion and ultimately annoyance. Now here he was actually saying the words - granted with no voice, but the lip movement was clear. “How?” Ryan asked again. “How?”

Stephen shrugged and stepped away so everyone could see the signs he was making. _I feel it as signs not talk. I speak with lips like I speak with hands._ He cocked his head at Ryan, as if to ask whether that made any sense at all.

Ryan laughed out loud. “Yes, it does. Just another way of looking at it. You still don’t know speech, but you know the mouth signs for speech.”

Stephen nodded happily.

Cutter, Abby and Connor crowded around the two of them, laughing and hugging both indiscriminately. For once, Ryan didn’t mind the extra touches. This was for Stephen, and for him. The captain glanced over Abby’s head at his own team, to see them all beaming at him as if they’d done this themselves. Ditzy gave him the high sign for ‘well done’, and Ryan nodded. His own lips formed ‘thank you’ to his men and they cheered, which finally broke up the people pile on Stephen and Ryan.

“Time to go home,” Ryan said contentedly. A good day. A damn good day that started out rotten but ended up the best of the best.

Now all they had to do was find some way to dispose of an Alectrosaurus corpse that was definitely surplus to requirements. Shit.

End


End file.
